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UBS has hired the former head of European credit trading from rival Credit Suisse to run its credit trading business in the region, an appointment that comes in a week when the Swiss group has suffered a clutch of senior departures led by the chief executive of its investment bank.

Derrick Herndon, who left Credit Suisse last year after a five-year career there, is expected to join UBS in London this week as managing director and European head of credit, reporting directly to Carsten Kengeter, the new co-head of the investment bank.

UBS has confirmed Herndon’s appointment.

Kengeter, who continues as global co-head of UBS’ fixed-income currencies and commodities division, was named co-head of the investment bank with Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, formerly chairman and chief executive of UBS, on Monday following Jerker Johansson’s departure as head of the investment bank just over a year after he joined in that role.

Other senior departures from UBS in the past week include Jim Renwick, vice-chairman of global capital markets and one it’s most high-profile equities bankers, and Henrik Raber, its co-head of European flow credit sales and trading, and global head of euro medium term notes. Renwick has joined Barclays Capital and Raber Standard Chartered.

Raber’s other co-head was Michael Schmidt, who will move over to what UBS describes as ‘client services’ where he will take over responsibility for managing “fixed-income channels” towards wealth management and external intermediaries. Schmidt is to work closely with Herndon during the transition.

Schmidt’s new job includes all fixed-income products, and developing existing client sales channels as well as new areas. He reports to Roberto Isolani and Fabian Shey, co-heads of global sales within the investment bank’s FICC client services division.

Most recently, Herndon ran integrated flow credit trading business at Credit Suisse in London, a position he was promoted to in April last year as part of the bank’s move to combine its European high-yield credit and investment-grade credit public sales and trading teams. Herndon was previously Credit Suisse’s head of high-yield trading

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Herndon’s hire also comes as UBS named Ananias Blocker, formerly vice president of government relations at the New York Stock Exchange, as a managing director of public policy in its US office.

Blocker is based in Washington, DC and will represent UBS on banking, securities and other financial services issues on Capitol Hill and the executive branch, according to a statement form UBS. He reports to John Savercool, head of UBS’ US public policy unit.

Robert Wolf, chairman and chief executive of UBS Americas, said: “UBS is committed to maintaining a constructive, ongoing dialogue with legislators and policymakers. Blocker’s deep public policy experience will bolster our bipartisan office and representation in the nation’s capital.”